Screw you Cowherd!!

this is a discussion within the Saints Community Forum; This guy is a complete and utter tool. Remember when T-Mac complained about the same thing for the All Star game after Katrina, it was one of the best they had, and he ended up looking like a complete idiot.
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This guy is a complete and utter tool. Remember when T-Mac complained about the same thing for the All Star game after Katrina, it was one of the best they had, and he ended up looking like a complete idiot.

"Last time we encountered Colin Cowherd, he was using his supreme knowledge to dump on "young, cheap" hockey writers around the country. Yesterday on his ESPN Radio show, Colin Cowherd went back to his wheelhouse - brilliant social commentary! The man that brought you John Wall's lack of a father makes him a bad NBA PG, Sean Taylor's past "stains" playing a role in his murder, and unemployed people in Ohio and Indiana are bringing it upon themselves has now turned his all-knowing gaze to the city of New Orleans.

You see, Colin Cowherd can't understand why the NFL would play the Pro Bowl in New Orleans. Forgetting the NFL doubled up hosting the Pro Bowl and Super Bowl in the same city in 2009 in Miami, Cowherd was amazed at New Orleans potentially hosting the game.

While that would be peculiar but not newsworthy, of course that's not all. Cowherd also can't understand why all these major sports events in the past year - the BCS National Championship Game, Final Four, and Super Bowl, would all go to New Orleans... the "least safe major city in the country." Oh, no. Here we go again...

"Can I ask you something, why is the least safe major city in the country now the default destination for every big sporting event? It is the least safe major city in the country, not my opinion, statistically the least safe. I have been to every major city in the country outside Kansas City. There are only two where locals will tell you turn around don't go that way - Detroit and New Orleans. And nobody from Louisiana calling me can even debate that.

"It doesn't have a world class airport, it is not geographically easy for much of the country to get to. If you live Rocky Mountains west, New Orleans is a long way away. Again, it's not a world class airport like an Orlando or LAX. It's not. It's a small airport. It's amazing, I don't know what it is."

Only Colin Cowherd could throw an airport diss into an insanely offensive, factually wrong, out-of-touch rant. There are so many things wrong here, it's actually worth going through them in detail...

Anyone that even casually follows sports knows New Orleans is one of the premier destinations for hosting major sporting events. Colin Cowherd is paid a handsome sum of money by ESPN to talk about sports and he "doesn't have an answer" as to why New Orleans has hosted these major sports events this year. To solve this mystery, here's a brief list of the major sporting events New Orleans has hosted and is scheduled to host...

With Miami, New Orleans has hosted more Super Bowls than any other city. In fact, New Orleans has hosted 21.3% of all Super Bowls. New Orleans hosts the BCS National Championship Game on a four year rotation and hosts the Sugar Bowl every year. New Orleans has hosted more Final Fours than any city except Indianapolis since 1980. All of this is news to Colin Cowherd.

Cowherd also says New Orleans is hard to get to and a long way away from areas west of the Rocky Mountains. This apparently makes it an extremely inconvenient destination for all these major sporting events. Let's take a look at the last five Super Bowl sites:

Distance from Los Angeles to Tampa: 2,528 miles
Distance from Los Angeles to Miami: 2,733 miles
Distance from Los Angeles to New Orleans: 1,895 miles

It is a longer distance to travel from the West Coast to Florida than it is from the West Coast to New Orleans. Hopefully that's not news to most of you.

But of course, it's the characterization of New Orleans as the "least safe city in the country" that is the most toxic. It's reckless, it's offensive, it's wrong. Colin Cowherd says this isn't just his opinion, it's fact. Here are actual facts:

-Neighborhood Scout does not include New Orleans in its list of 100 most dangerous cities.
-New Orleans is not in the list of the Top 10 most dangerous cities for women.
-New Orleans did not make The Atlantic's Top 10 most dangerous cities according to the FBI.
-New Orleans did not appear on this list of the 25 most dangerous cities ranked by violent crimes per 100,000 people at Business Insider.

New Orleans has had to battle against this negative perception, especially in the years since Hurricane Katrina. To hear the city thrashed in such a way is sad, quite frankly, knowing what New Orleans has endured and persevered through.

I can only share with you my personal experience in the city. I spent a week in New Orleans in 2006 and again in 2007 doing Hurricane Katrina relief work. I saw images that will never be erased from my mind including one house in the Lower Ninth Ward where a clock was still frozen in time when the hurricane hit a year and a half earlier. I saw incomprehensible destruction and human grief that is indescribable in words.

But I also saw something incredible in New Orleans. I saw people who held onto hope when they lost everything. I met some of the most generous, hospitable people in my life. I encountered a city that wanted visitors and tourists to come to prove to the world they could come back from one of the worst natural disasters in American history. I saw a city that had a culture and a spirit like none other.

Does the city have a crime problem? Sure. Does the city have bad places to stay away from? Yes. But so does every other major city in this country. New Orleans is not the only place in the world where out-of-towners need to be careful.

These major sporting events returning to New Orleans should be celebrated, not villified. It is a testament to the people of New Orleans to see these games come back. You should see the city for yourself once. Go meet some of the people there, explore the French Quarter, visit Jackson Square, take a stroll down Bourbon Street, or enjoy a beignet at Cafe Du Monde. That's the New Orleans I came to know... no matter what sports talk shock jocks may say otherwise."

I am missing New Orleans. So is my wife. I took her to see her first Saints game in 2008 against Atlanta. She fell in love and understood why I have loved this city for a long time. We have returned several times, we honeymooned there, we shed tears that wonderful night of February the 7th at Broussard's on Conti. Yes, there are some bad places in New Orleans that tourists are told to avoid but tell me one city that doesn't have that. We're really trying to get over there for February next year but if we can't, we need to plan for this year. I always say to people that ask me about it 'It's not just somewhere you look at and listen to but somewhere you feel'. That's what makes it what it is.

In addendum, I've had no respect for that moron since he called Southerners "tornado bait" a few years ago. I was living in NOLA during Katrina, then in Tuscaloosa for the tornadoes last April. Sorta lost my sense of humor about life-threatening weather somewhere along the way.

Rather than attack without facts as you chose to do regarding New Orleans and its popularity as a major event destination, I did a bit of research to see if what you were saying made any sense at all. And as I thought they might, the facts prove you have no idea what you are talking about.
Travel and Leisure Magazine is widely respectd as a "go-to" travel publication. They have a neat feature which allows you to compare destinations over a variety of criteria. So I did so comparing New Orleans to 7 major destinations. Here were the results

Conclusion - Top 10... take out "Family Destination" and would be Top 3

I am sure these facts will never see the light of day on your show... New Orleans is the Choice of destination for a myriad of reasons....The Airport, contrary to your views, is extremely convenient... Once there you are less than 20 minutes from downtown. No need to rent a car in New Orleans... everything is within walking distance... Hotels?? top of the line.. Restaurants?? Same... Nightlife?? Get real...

Now lets talk safety Colin... Admittedly our crime rate per capita is unacceptable. Our mayor just announced a major initiative to deal with the problems but it does not change the murder rate. If you chose to look beyond you nose however you would have found that the vast majority of the problem is confined in the lower income areas of the city and very VERY little problems ever exist in the tourist areas. The Superdome not safe?? I think you were mistaken it and really thinking of San Francisco and L.A. where people actually get beat up and worse attending games.... Not here... Just does not happen.... Event management? We OWN the phrase...Go to L.A. or to Bloomington Indiana or any of the other cities where mobs burn cars and riots ensue after a championship.... In N.O. in 2010, we had almost a million people pack the city for the NFCCG, the Superbowl and then again for the parade.... In a city of 350,000 that is triple the population... How many major incidents (murder, riot, car burning)??? NONE....ZERO.... NILCH....

Events keep coming back to N.O. because people responsible for knowing actually do their research.... they find out.... they find N.O. not only acceptable but the destination of CHOICE..... and again.. once they come here.... they keep coming back

Please by all means,if you hate NOLA that much stay the HELL OUT! I can’t stand that idiot. I have only watched ESPN once (Clippers Playoff game)since they started bashing the Saints with absolutely zero credible evidence and honestly I was starting to get sick of them before that. Its become 90% drama and 10% sports. SMH....